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After Spending 17 Entire Days Underground, 12 Boys And Their Coach Are Finally Safe

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The world is excited about the great news that came from Thailand after the operation to rescue a kids' football team from a flooded cave has finally been completed. Thanks to the courage and skills of the Thai Navy SEALs and divers from many other countries, the 12 boys, and their coach were safely brought to the surface.

The story showed us that even with terrible odds, there can be a happy ending.

Let's take the story from the beginning: Some boys and their coach went on an excursion to the cave of Khao Luang, located in a mountain park in the Thai province of Chiang Rai. They soon found themselves trapped because of flooding caused by the monsoon rains which had started earlier than expected. The team had no means of getting out of the cave, as they had gone in too deep and didn't have the diving equipment nor the experience of handling such challenging situations.

The rescue crew discovered the boys and their coach in a few days. Nevertheless, they couldn’t get everybody to the surface immediately since the rains had flooded a big part of the inner workings of the cave, leaving just small areas untouched. The water only kept coming, leaving the children and the coach with less and less oxygen.

The rescuers started pumping out water and providing food, blankets, and oxygen to the team trapped in the cave. This was a challenging and extremely dangerous task, as the corridors of the cave in some places narrowed down to 40 cm and were entirely filled with water. That only made it possible to swim (or rather, squeeze) through them by pushing the oxygen tanks in front of them.

The Thai Navy had to decide how to proceed. The flooded corridors of the cave turned out to be quite a challenge even for military divers because of strong currents, pitch darkness and the narrowest areas completely full of muddy water. Not to mention that the boys had no relevant experience: most of them did not even know how to swim and properly breathe underwater.

In the end, despite the great danger, they decided to get the boys out of the cave without waiting for the water level to drop. Taking into account the rainy season, waiting could take many months, and no one knows what such long confinement in a stuffy cave could result in. Two divers accompanied every boy — one of them carried a tank with oxygen which the teenager could breathe from through the mask.

Approximately 100 divers, including foreign ones, were involved in the rescuing operation. Thai Navy SEALs posted a photo on their Facebook page where all those who participated in the rescue operation are depicted in the form of animals. For instance, the white elephant represents the provincial governor, the frogs stand for the world-class divers, the elk stands for the rescuers from Sweden, the dragon represents the water-pumping team, the panda stands for the Chinese divers, and so on.

In some places, rescuers had to literally crawl through narrow tunnels full of water and bring the kids back through them the same way. One can only imagine how difficult this was for them to do, as even taking a glance at these frames might cause a person to panic.

Unfortunately, one of the rescuers, 38-year-old Saman Kunan died while delivering oxygen to the cave. The scuba diver himself didn't have enough oxygen, and therefore, he lost consciousness. This brave hero sacrificed his life to save 13 people.

Thousands of people around the globe prayed for the salvation of the Thai teenagers, and their request was heard. All 12 boys and their coach were safely released from the trap. The operation took three days in total.

At the moment, all former captives of the ill-fated cave are in the hospital, and their lives are no longer in danger. As official representatives of the medical institution said, teens have strong health, and most importantly, they're strong in spirit.